What’s more frightening: a juggling clown, or a juggling robot? After watching the video below, I’d say they’re pretty close. Yes, you have the creepy Krusty the Clown laugh that goes with most clowns, but the juggling robot has a terrifying metallic screech to it that will haunt your dreams. Either way, this robot can impressively juggle five balls — which is quite the advanced and difficult juggling technique to pull off.

Designed and built by students at the Department of Control Engineering at Prague’s Czech Technical University, the robot can juggle five balls, which is a hard task to do successfully since all five axes have to be controlled at the same time. It uses three linear motors: one for each arm, which slide up and down on vertical tracks, and one for a central part at the bottom that collects any fallen balls and launches them back into the air. The arms can move vertically and horizontally. To catch the balls while in motion, the robot has circular grippers that are affixed to each arm which can move horizontally.

The juggling robot uses a feedback loop with data built into the motors. It also uses a high-speed camera to tweak the paths of the balls. The research students say the juggling robot is more than just a cool spectacle. It also demonstrates “precision control and high-speed object tracking.” The team started with the goal of juggling just three billiard balls, but was able to make it work consistently with up to five.

If you really want to get into the super technical underpinnings of this machine, the students have written out a technical description complete with mathematical equations.